Email is an ubiquitous means of electronic communications allowing a user to create and distribute an electronic message to others. Typical parts of an email include a body for the message and a header. The header generally includes a subject line, a timestamp and a distribution list. The distribution list allows multiple recipients to be identified in the “to”, “cc” and “bcc” fields.
When an email is generated having several addressees in the distribution list, the subsequent email string of replies can become a mesh of overlapping replies from different addressees. For example, replies can be generated from any number of the addressees and can be sent to any number of different addressees in the string. This can cause information gaps when an addressee is creating a responding email to the string. As the responding email is being created by a user, he may receive a relevant reply from another addressee in the string. The user may complete and send his responding email, without having the benefit of knowing about the reply.
Prior art email programs operating on personal computers may present a “ghost” pop-up message indicating that an email has been received, such as in Microsoft Outlook 2003. However, such messages are provided for every incoming email without being customized for the current state of the recipient of the message. As such, a user tends to ignore such messages. Also, email programs operating on portable devices do not have such facilities.
There is a need for a system and method which addresses deficiencies in the prior art.